Archive for January, 2015

Happy news for me! Somewhat Luddite though I am , I have been able to get to the bottom of thanks mystery. (much thanks to blogger d’un renard). Able to do some security stuff, and get the website up and running again.

I don’t know who hacked my website nuclear-news.net. However, the rather flattering thought is that it was done by the nuclear lobby – suggesting that they fear that this website is having an impact.

Multiple deaths at Fukushima nuclear plants – Worker dies after plunging over 30 feet into water tank – Another killed from severe head injury after caught in equipment – Tepco warned last week about soaring number of worker injuries

Meet the Renewable Energy RevolutionThe Nuclear “Renaissance” is Over, CounterPunch by LINDA PENTZ GUNTERJANUARY 22, 2013 The nuclear renaissance-that-never-was is over. As a brazen propaganda campaign — “if we say there is a nuclear renaissance then there is one” was pretty much all there was to it — it has belly-flopped into an empty swimming pool. Even the mainstream media is dismissing the notion now as a never-was-and-never-will-be mirage (although it meekly bought in for a long time before the evidence of the sham was incontrovertible.)

But like the old man in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the nuclear industry continues to claim that it is “not dead” yet and actually “getting better.”

Consequently, in a last ditch attempt to belie reality, the nuclear industry endeavors to reinvent itself with a steady parade of better nuclear mouse-traps. One day it’s the Small Modular Reactor! Then it’s the Answer to Climate Change! Or it’s got to be the Fast Integral Reactor!

But the nuclear industry is none of those things. It’s just over. It won’t go slowly and it won’t go quietly, and it won’t go without trying to suck up a whole lot more of our tax dollars. But go it will. And according to the venerable international investment bank, UBS, that exit will come sooner rather than later.

Paris Terror Spurs Plan for Military Zones Around Nuclear Plants Bloomberg, By Tara Patel January 20, 2015 Lawmakers in France want to create military zones around its 58 atomic reactors to boost security after this month’s Paris terror attacks and almost two dozen mystery drone flights over nuclear plants that have baffled authorities……..

The slaughter in Paris and the drones mean a new law is “urgent,” said de Ganay, a member of the parliament’s defense committee whose constituency includes the Dampierre reactor……..

Its Public Utilities Commission may soon gouge the public for $3 billion(BILLION!) to subsidize two filthy 50-year-old coal burners and America’s most dangerous nuke.

Approval would seal Ohio’s death notice. None of those coal/nuke burners can compete with the rising revolution in renewable energy. Throughout the world, similar outmoded facilities are shutting down.

In 2001, Ohio deregulated its electric markets. But the state’s nuke owners demanded nearly $10 billion in “stranded cost” handouts so the obsolete Davis-Besse and Perry reactors on Lake Erie could allegedly compete with more efficient technologies.

Today, despite the huge subsidies, renewables and fracked gas have completely priced them out of the market. Davis-Besse—a Three Mile Island clone—is infamous worldwide for its horrific breakdowns, ……..

Davis-Besse is being run by owners who believe—with good reason—that they can get away with anything.

Perhaps that’s because, should it blow, FirstEnergy is shielded by federal law from virtually all liability for downwind financial, ecological and human health damage, which would be incalculable.

It Is 3 Minutes To Midnight – Climate Change And Nuclear Tensions Push Doomsday Clock Hands Forward“Extraordinary and Undeniable” Climate, Weapons Threats Cited for Movement; Doomsday Clock Adjustment is 1st in 3 Years and is Accompanied by Urgent Call for Action. WASHINGTON, Jan. 22, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Warning that “the probability of global catastrophe is very high” unless quick action is taken, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board today cited unchecked climate change and global nuclear weapons modernization as the basis for their decision to move the minute hand of the historic Doomsday Clock forward two minutes. The shift of the Doomsday Clock hands to three minutes to midnight is the first such adjustment to be made in three years. The Board also outlined action steps that will need to be taken “very soon” in order to avert catastrophe.

UK nuclear ambitions dealt fatal blow by Austrian legal challenge, say Greens Lawyers say legal delays could prevent UK from realising its ambitions for new nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point C by 2023. Plans for a new generation of nuclear reactors in the UK have been dealt a fatal blow by Austria’s decision to launch a legal challenge to the EU’s approval of a £17.6bn subsidy deal, according to the Green Party.

That’s the estimated amount the country plans to spend on nuclear power plants to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pledge to provide around-the-clock electricity, and end the nation’s blackout curse. With President Barack Obama set to visit India next week, officials and business leaders from both nations are meeting in London to discuss a legal obstacle that’s deterring new projects: Liability.

Most countries where nuclear-plant suppliers do business have enacted or subscribed to laws that protect the vendors from liability claims in the event of a nuclear accident. India is different and one reason is the world’s worst industrial accident. In December 1984, more than 10,000 people were killed or injured by a toxic gas leak from the Union Carbide Corp. fertilizer plant in Bhopal.

Bhopal was more than 30 years ago, but it will overshadow nuclear talks between Obama and Modi during the U.S. President’s state visit starting Jan. 25.

India’s nuclear liability law, which was enacted in 2010 includes a means to sue equipment vendors in the case of an accident. The U.S. wants the law changed and the issue will feature in meetings between Obama and Modi, said two Indian government officials familiar with the plans, who asked not to be identified because they aren’t designated spokesmen.

A Deterrent’

“Liability law has been a deterrent,” Chris Gadomski, a nuclear-power analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said in a telephone interview. Companies that supply components for reactors could be on the hook for damages from an accident even though they have no control over the quality of plant construction. “I wouldn’t invest in, or build, a nuclear power plant with the existing law on the books.”………..

“It’s anti-democratic and anti-national to dilute this law,” said G. Sundarrajan, a former software engineer-turned-anti-nuclear activist in the southern city of Chennai. “If the government waters down this law, there is no reason why citizens can’t file a case of sedition against the government.”

Shocking state of world’s riskiest nuclear waste site New Scientist 21 January 2015 by Fred PearceURGENT clean-up of two of the world’s most dangerous radioactive waste stores will be delayed by at least five years, despite growing safety fears.

The waste is stored at the UK’s Sellafield nuclear reprocessing site, which holds radioactive waste dating back to the dawn of the nuclear age. An accident at the derelict site could release radioactive materials into the air over the UK and beyond…….

the exact contents of the ponds are unclear, says Paul Howarth, managing director of the government-owned National Nuclear Laboratory at Sellafield. “We have to do a lot of R&D just to characterise the inventory, before we can work out how to retrieve the materials.”

Danger areas

Pile 1 is one of the two original reactors built to support the UK atomic bomb project. It is where the country’s worst nuclear accident took place, when the reactor core caught fire in 1957. Once the fire was extinguished the core was sealed and it is considered best left alone for now.

Pile fuel storage pond took in spent fuel from both the weapons reactors and energy reactors. The radioactive waste and sludge formed from the storage process sit in a deteriorating concrete structure filled with water. Removal of the sludge is under way. This pond has sat unused since the 1970s.

Pile fuel cladding silo is jammed with 3200 cubic metres of aluminium cladding, which surrounds the fuel rods, much of it from 1950s weapons reactors. It has been sealed since the mid-1960s but corrosion means there is a risk that hydrogen will form, which could lead to explosions.

Magnox spent fuel storage pond is considered the most dangerous industrial building in Europe. The 150-metre-long open-air pond is visited by birds and cracks have caused radioactive material to leak into the soil. No one knows exactly what’s in there, but it may contain a tonne of plutonium.

Magnox swarf storage silo is considered the second most dangerous industrial building in Europe. It stores waste magnesium fuel cladding under water. Some sludge has leaked through cracks in the concrete, and there is a risk of explosion from hydrogen released by corrosion of storage vesse

Global nuclear majors target China By LYU CHANG(China Daily) As nuclear power plants continue to be phased out by many countries, foreign energy giants are pinning their hopes on China’s nuclear market, and its huge potential for growth.